HPfGU: Attn Steve - a belated Bathrooms post!

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 77785


I've just been going through the HPfGU archive - strangely, a number of 
the posts I have made in the past month or so have not shown up in my 
own mail.   Anyway, I found your reply, below, to a post I'd made, and 
on the offchance that you are still interested in having my answers, 
here they are!

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com , Pen Robinson < pen at p... > wrote:

 > At my boarding school there were several bathrooms which each
 > contained a bath, and usually also a washbasin.
 >
 > ...edited...

bboy_mn:

I'm curious as to whether you are referring to one bathroom (as you
described) per dorm/student_living room, or in some cases, one shared
bath per two dorm rooms, or if you are referring to one large common
facility full of several separate individual baths and sinks. I got
the impression of individual private bathrooms.

The second question is, when you say 'bath' for you mean bathing area,
or specifically, a bathtub; if bathtub, then a bathtub with or without
shower capability?

Ho-kay.  Now, then.  I think we ought to be clear on the meaning of 
'dorm', here.  I feel fairly sure that it means something different on 
opposite sides of the Atlantic.

When I was at boarding school, we girls slept in dormitories.  A 
dormitory, generally known as a dorm, was a bedroom.  Younger students 
(I keep wanting to call them 'juniors' but that is open to 
misinterpretation too!) were not supposed to be in their dorms for 
leisure - they slept, and got dressed/changed, in the dorms but spent 
the rest of the non-school time in the common room downstairs (or 
outside).   In the sixth form, we were allowed to spend more time in 
our dorms if we so wished.

In the early years, we were in dorms of 8, 10 or 12.  Dorm furniture 
was (per student): bed (often but not always bunkbeds), bedside locker 
(not something that locked, but a fairly minimalist little cupboard 
about 3' high) and chest of drawers.  There were, if I remember 
rightly, a couple of wardrobes per dorm, for us to hang up such clothes 
as required hanging up.

  As we increased in seniority, the dorms got smaller, so that in the 
fifth year I shared with two or three others, and in the sixth form, 
was in a room for two.  The basic dorm furniture remained the same, 
though for our tiny sixth form two-dorm, the wardrobe was on the 
landing outside, and we had two very basic stackable desks to 
accommodate in the (very tiny) dorm itself: sixth-formers did their 
homework in their dorms, while the younger students did their homework 
in the common rooms downstairs.  There were (actually, this varied, but 
we won't go into that!) three common rooms, Junior (1st, 2nd and 3rd 
years), Senior (4th and 5th) and Sixth Form.

It's probably worth explaining that our boarding house was a largeish 
Edwardian house just opposite the school.  The top corridor on which 
the various sixth-form dorms were located had obviously been the 
servants' quarters, hence the tiny rooms!

Anyway.

None of our dormitories contained so much as a washbasin.  Washing 
facilities were to be found in various cloakrooms - a cloakroom being 
the place which contained a row of toilet cubicles and, opposite them, 
a row of handbasins.   The cloakrooms varied in size (and just to 
confuse you, we also referred to the rooms in which we hung up our 
outdoor coats, as cloakrooms.  But never mind that now.) -- the one on 
the sixth form landing was quite small, but see next paragraph...    
JKR, of course, refers to "the girls' toilets" instead of saying "the 
girls' cloakroom", but the thing is understood to be the same - ie 
Moaning Myrtle lives in a room with a row of loos in cubicles, and a 
row of washbasins.

The bathrooms contained: a bathtub.  Sometimes also a washbasin.  
Sometimes (it's a bit vague, after so long!) even a toilet.  But when I 
refer to 'a bathroom', what I mean is 'a room which contains a bath'.   
  Anyway, there were various bathrooms all over the place.  Those on the 
sixth form landing were equipped with loo and washbasin, which was 
handy.   We did not (this was in the 1970s) have showers at all, except 
for those hideous plastic/rubber attachment thingies which fitted over 
the taps and were used to facilitate the washing of hair.   With fifty 
girls in the house, bath times were regulated, ie the juniors had to 
have their baths on pre-specified nights at specified times.  Sixth 
formers were allowed to bath when they chose (and when they could find 
an empty bathroom!).

(There was a similar arrangement when I was at university: individual 
bathrooms on every corridor, with separate toilets next to them.  While 
I lived in the most modern part of the college I had a washbasin in my 
room; a subsequent move to a bigger, more beautiful room in the older 
part of college meant going along the corridor to a bathroom with 
handbasin, or a mini cloakroom containing loo and basin.)

Perhaps the first question we should ask and answer is whether
Hogwarts is likely to have private/semi-private bathrooms, or if they
have common/communal bathrooms?

 From my own experience, therefore, bathrooms would be individual, 
private rooms.  NO communal bathing!   I did experience communal 
showering once I went to college, as there was a shower area in the 
changing room at the boat club.  And I suppose the showers by our 
school swimming pool were more or less communal, but those were really 
only used for getting the chlorine off, not for 'proper' showers 
involving actual soap...

I can only use my personal NOT-UK college experience where dorm rooms
has a sink but that's all. A floor of dorm rooms used a common
bathroom and shower (no partitions between showers). I suspect that
covers a vast majority of colleges in the US.

So the first question - Hogwarts Boarding School...

Private bath - one bathroom per dorm room?

Semi-private bath - one bathroom per two dorm rooms? Although, living
in a tower, doesn't make that likely.

Common/Communal bathroom? - Perhaps one floor of the tower is a large
bathroom for the boys, and another floor of the tower is a large
bathroom for the girls. Personally, this is has my vote.

I'd suggest there would be at least one communal cloakroom (ie washing 
facilities and toilets) as described above, with individual bathrooms 
as well.

Or as an alternative, one floor split in half; boy on the right half,
girls on the left half, solid stone wall with no 'peep' holes
separating the two.

Then the next question is, what facilities, that is, what equipment is
contained in each bathroom?

Tubs, stools, sinks?

Tub/shower combinations, stools, sinks?

Showers only, stools, sinks?

I think Hogwarts is old-fashioned enough to have baths rather than 
showers.   In my childhood homes, the only shower available was the 
aforementioned plastic/rubber attachment thingies.  When I acquired a 
step-grandmother, the shower built in over her bathtub seemed very posh.

Primarily group showers with a few tubs, stools, sinks?

No saunas, no hot tub/Jacuzzi, no steam room, no tanning beds, no
masseuse, etc...

Only for prefects!

Of course, there is no way for me to know, but here is what I suspect.

One tower floor for boys, and one for girls bathroom facilities, open
group showers with a few semi-private tubs, private toilet stalls,
rows of sinks, and a changing area outside the shower area. One wash
sink in each dorm room.

But, like I said, I have know way of knowing, so this is pure 
speculation.

I speculate that JKR hasn't really thought it out, to be honest!   My 
own boarding school life was fairly free and easy by comparison with my 
sister's (she attended a different boarding school), but there was 
quite a bit more regulation than there is at Hogwarts.  Bells rung to 
regulate the rising from bed, attendance at meals, departure for 
school, the beginning and end of 'prep' (ie homework time), and so 
forth.   I spose the house elves are a bit more amenable than mere 
human staff to supplying a rather staggered breakfast time, but if the 
Hogwarts students really do wander about as they please, the place must 
be a madhouse!

Cheers,

Pen




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